GUATEMALA.

It’s so hard to capture it.

All of the things I’m seeing, experiencing, & being influenced by. Every country brings a new awareness of the brilliance & magnitude of our Creator.

Guatemala- ‘land of eternal spring.’

This place was c o l o r. Everywhere you look, there are bright & vibrant blasts of color from the merchants and markets to the traditional clothes women wear. Beautiful & warm people. Active volcanoes surrounding villages & cities. A vast lake (Lake Atitlán) that was voted to be one of the 7 wonders of the world.

I will always think of my season in Guatemala as the place where God started changing my perspective on how we measure time.
We were in Guatemala a total of 2 months. Our 1st month was spent serving with a pastor and his family in a little mountain community with lots of kiddoes & police ministry.

 

Our last month was our 1st experience in what the Race calls “ATL” (‘ask The Lord’). It means that you have no pre-organized plan of a ministry host or location in the country. You simply come together as a team & pray, seeking God’s direction for where He desires us to ‘sojourn’ in the land of Guatemala.

In full transparency, this was a challenging experience for me personally. In the beginning, I was elated & anticipating all the “God-stories” I was going to see. I kept thinking about how maybe structure (& my personal ‘need’ for it) could possibly be a hindrance to what God wants to fully do in and through me. As I’ve grown in my relationship with God, one thing He & I continually need to work through is the balance of ‘effectiveness’ & ‘efficiency.’ One of the ways I’m wired is to live a full life, on mission & with clear vision for where I’m headed. This translates into life on the field where I want to have really purposeful, busy days with constant interaction with others, and active ways to serve with our ministry hosts.

But God used this ATL season to teach my how my priorities for living an “on mission” life can often get skewed.

---

As we prayed, the only direction my team received was that we were supposed to go to Antigua (a popular tourist destination in Guate). This is also the home of our favorite coffee shop where we had made some sweet ministry relationships with during our time in Guate.

The 1st day of ATL, we were literally sitting on the rooftop of this cafe (“Serve Hope”) with no idea of where we were going to sleep that night or how we were supposed to spend our days in service. Long story short, God absolutely provided & led us to a family we got to serve and live with over the next few weeks. Since we weren’t partnering with a ministry host, it was up to us to determine our “ministry schedule.” And as we continually tried to figure out where & how we were supposed to serve with our time, God kept impressing on us that this could be a really unique season to spend our days soaking in God’s Word together. That maybe He hadn’t given us clear direction yet because He really just wanted us to spend this season in intentional devotion to the Bible.

So that’s what we did.

We decided to look at our days as scheduled “Bible” time, just like a normal work day. Daily, we would go to Serve Hope & choose a book of the Bible to delve into together from 9-5, allowing The Lord to interrupt us whenever there was an opportunity to serve someone or share the Gospel.

Some days we would prayer walk the city & other days we would join the ‘prayer room’ available at Serve Hope where believers gathered to intercede for the country of Guatemala. We also got to attend a worship room every Thursday night at Serve Hope where we made several friendships & many connections that led to the ‘God-stories’ He wanted to write.

Before we made this decision, I was personally  being challenged with the ‘lack of structure’ & our team struggled to figure out ‘what we were supposed to do.’ This reminds me a lot of how often, in the life of a believer, we can get so consumed with trying to discern God’s voice & knowing the exact right direction that He wants us to go that we sometimes end up in ‘decision paralysis.’ But when I realized that truly the most valuable “ministry” I could be doing was spent in Scripture & intercession & surrendered to allowing Him to fill our days with supernatural encounters- BOY DID HE SHOW UP !!!!! One day we were literally sitting in the prayer room about to start & a lady walked in, asking if she could join us because she recently became a Christian and had a lot of questions. She had a background in psychedelics & ‘conscious communities’ and her testimony was incredible! We got to meet with her a few times, hearing more about her story and trying to help her in her new relationship with Jesus. It was incredible & I was left in awe of how God can literally bring Gospel opportunities to your front door if you just try to live with an “availability” mentality. 

Through this season, I learned a critical lesson. The way to know God’s voice is found in His Word. He speaks loud and clear through His inspired Scriptures & that’s one of the main ways He desires us to hear from Him. The key to seeking God’s voice is seeking Himself. When you don’t know the next step, immerse yourself in God’s Word. The most valuable ways to spend our days are in prayer, intercession, & getting to know the Living Word.

My days in Antigua gave me a framework for how I want to do life. Be a student of the Word. Frame your days around prioritizing time in intimacy with Him. The most ‘effective’ ways you can serve The Lord start with spending time with Him, not activity. Let your ministry & actions flow from a heart that has spent time a b i d i n g in Him. When you have extra time, soak up every moment in Scripture. That’s how you learn His voice & how He prepares you for the assignments He is calling you to.

If you’re in a season of life right now where you’re lost or don’t know what to do, be encouraged friend. He’s not hiding & He LOVES to make Himself known. And I think Scripture is definitely one of His favorite ways to do it. I’m no expert but God is giving me a new understanding of the importance of ‘getting into the Word of God & getting the Word of God into you.’

Lord, help us all to remain in the posture of a student. Give us a hunger & desire for Your Word. You are the true Word, thank You that your sheep can know Your voice (John 10:10). In Jesus name, Amen.

So thankful for the stories He wrote in Guatemala & can’t wait to see what He has in store in Romania!!!

 

keep on keeping on,

kenz🤍